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From revenge at the Salon to the Nabis: the Robert-Fleurys 1
It’s commonly thought that the last time that Britain was invaded was by the Normans in 1066. In fact it was by an American Colonel in 1797 on behalf of Napoleon. He landed at Fishguard in Wales, and...
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Painting Goethe’s Faust: 9 The story of Gretchen by Ary Scheffer & James Tissot
Two great nineteenth-century narrative painters depicted many scenes from Goethe’s Faust Part One: Ary Scheffer and James Tissot. In my previous account of the tragedy of Gretchen, I have shown many of...
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More Than Portraits: the paintings of Diego Velazquez 7 Late Portraits and...
Soon after Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) had painted Las Hilanderas, he was arranging his second visit to Italy. Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), A Country Lass (La Gallega) (1645-50) [106], oil on canvas,...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 1 Into Hell
It is just before dawn on Good Friday in 1300, and Dante is in mid-life. He is wandering, lost in a dark wood. Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Dante Lost in the Forest (1861), gouache, dimensions not known,...
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A Peculiar Beauty: the paintings of Ker-Xavier Roussel 2
Although the Nabis as a group had effectively dissolved well before 1910, several of its former members remained close friends. Their styles had changed, with higher chroma resulting from the influence...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 2 Crossing with Charon
Dante has been rescued from three wild beasts by the ghost of Virgil, who leads him along the only route away, taking the pair to the gate of Hell. There inscribed above the gate is a forbidding series...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 3 In Limbo, and the Harrowing of Hell
Dante lost consciousness just before he was expecting to be ferried in Charon’s boat across the River Acheron, from Hell’s Gate to its First Circle. Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), Map of Hell...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 4 Lust
Having seen the souls caught in Limbo (the First Circle of Hell), Dante and his guide Virgil descend to the Second Circle, where those who were guilty of the sin of lust are to be found. They pass the...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 5 Gluttony
After hearing Francesca’s story in the Second Circle of Hell, Dante weeps for her and faints. When he comes to, he realises that he is now in the Third Circle, where it is pouring with rain, snow and...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 6 Avarice, Wrath, and more
From the gluttons, Virgil leads Dante past the great foe of Plutus, a wolf-like creature who is chided by Virgil, and so they descend to see the next densely-populated circle of avaricious misers and...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 7 The Furies and Heresy
Dante and Virgil are ferried across the River Styx to land at the gate to the city of Dis, the lower depths of Hell (circles six to nine), but the gate is slammed shut on Virgil when he goes forward to...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 8 Murderers, bandits, suicides
Virgil leads Dante into a gorge which takes them from the heretics further into the depths of Hell. As they descend, Virgil advises that they take their time so they can become accustomed to the stench...
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Paintings of Félix Vallotton: 3 Myth and Mists
In the first few years of the twentieth century, the former Nabi painter and print-maker Félix Vallotton (1865–1925) had concentrated on painting mysterious interiors, as well as portraits and other...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 9 Blasphemy, sodomy, usury
From their tragic encounter with tormented souls in the Suicide Wood, Virgil leads Dante onto a barren and sandy plain, where groups of spirits are in different postures, naked under steady showers of...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 10 Pimps, soothsayers, the corrupt
In their descent into the depths of Hell, Virgil and Dante have just entered circle eight, which is for those who committed fraud in its broadest sense. This consists of what Dante refers to as...
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Corydon: 1 Stories of shepherds
However pastoral the landscape looks, life for the shepherd (and shepherdess) is seldom as peaceful as it’s made out to be. This weekend’s two articles look at the depiction of shepherds and...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 11 Barrators, hypocrites and thieves
When a group of devils armed with long hooks threatens Dante, Virgil hurries him on towards the next rottenpocket in Hell. They work their way around some of the damage wrought by Christ’s harrowing of...
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A Terrifying Beauty: Medusa 2
In yesterday’s first of this pair of articles, I looked at paintings of the terrifying Medusa. This concluding article follows the story of her life, or rather the end of her life at the hands of...
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 12 The fraudulent
After talking with the notorious thief Vanni Fucci, who becomes pinned down by snakes, Dante and Virgil move on and meet a centaur, identified by Virgil as Cacus, who had been killed by Hercules....
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno 13 Treachery
After Dante and Virgil hear the story of an alchemist who claimed to be able to transform base metals into gold, Dante mentions examples of those who have fallen victim to sudden changes of fate, in...
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